Infants are born during different stages of development and are as a result thereof therefore born with different sizes and bodyweight. The number of infants born with a low body weight is increasing. For example preterm or premature infants which are infants born before the term of the birth, i.e. before the 37th week of gestation, may have a low body weight at birth. Other infants are small for their gestational age, i.e. may for example be born at term, but have a small body weight, such as below 2500 grams. Furthermore, some infants may have a low growth pattern because of medical issues e.g. digestive disorders, diarrhea, disease, trauma, malnutrition or simply because their mother's milk is depleted in fat or has a low fat content. Those infants are in need for catching up growth.
Mother's milk is recommended for all infants. However, in some cases breast feeding is inadequate, unsuccessful or the mother chooses not to breast feed. For infants not being breast fed there are many nutritional formulas which are commercially available and which cover the infant's nutritional requirements, necessary for the infant's growth and development, such as lipids, proteins, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals.
However, neither the commercially available infant formulas nor human breast milk have a nutritional composition which is optimal for any of the above mentioned infants, since they have higher nutritional needs than infants born under normal conditions and/or growing under normal conditions. In preterm infants, the breast milk manipulation during preparation of feed is also associated with significant fat losses.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published curves for normal growth of an infant with regard to weight, length and head circumference in relation to the age of the infant. All the infants mentioned above and who require a higher nutritional intake than normal have in common that human milk or infant formulas will not meet their needs for energy and nutrients, such as to obtain a growth rate similar to the WHO recommended growth rate.
The infants who are low in weight or have a slow growth rate for medical reasons therefore need a supplement to the human breast milk or infant formula.
Some nutritional supplements for infant formula or human breast milk are known in the art. However, these supplements focus on supplementation of proteins.
The European patent application EP1871182 relates to a liquid human milk fortifier composition comprising from 15% to 45% by weight protein and having a caloric density of from about 1.25 to 6.0 kcal/ml. The fat content is described to be up to 40% by weight on a dry weight basis.
The PCT patent application, WO 2011/144340 relates to a protein fortifier for use in varying the amount of protein in preterm infant nutrition.
However, the supplements known do not disclose or suggest a fortification composition having a high amount of lipids and lower amount of proteins and carbohydrates to improve the energy and high-quality fats intakes of an infant without supplying unnecessary high amounts of proteins and/or carbohydrates to the infant.
Thus, there is an unmet need in the art for a milk fortifier composition to give to infants to increase the energy and high-quality fats content, such that the growth rate becomes similar to the one of a normal infant as recommended by WHO.